User blog:CuddleFluffy/Does Sindbad mean Lord of the Sindh?
I've heard professors say it. I've seen it all over the internet. So... that's what it means, right? Right??? Ohohoho, when I went to find the meaning of Sinbad's name, that's what I thought too. What I did not expect to find was argument after argument over whether it comes from Persian or Arabic. ... I was so naive. The commonly cited meaning of Sinbad - derived from Sindbad - is that it means "Lord of the Sindh." Cool, right? All I have to find is what language bad means "Lord" in. Well, my first idea was to go to good old Wikipedia. If you don't know, there's a discussion page on every article. This one got quite a bit of use regarding his name. I found a few camps of thought. 1. Sinbad an Arabic tale because it mentions places like Basra and was originally written in Arabic. 2. Sinbad is a Persian tale and Bad means "wind." The name would translate to "Wind that blows over the Sindh" 3. Sinbad is a Pakistani tale. That's why his name is Sinbad, meaning it is a "wind" (story) brought over from the Sindh, which runs through Pakistan. 4. The stories of Sinbad were based on the voyages of Chinese admiral Zheng He, who was sometimes called Ma Sanbao. I discarded the last two because they seemed to be the weakest claims. For the Arabic claim, it seemed like a citation needed type deal too. I've found more sources that say Sinbad is Persian than Arabic, and it's in the Cambridge History of Iran, so... that's what I decided was the most reliable. Since I have an Iranian friend who's a linguist, I asked her what the meaning of the name is. Her answer was that it's an old name with many meanings. The Persian is Sandbad ( سندباد) but they call it Sanbad without the first d for simplicity's sake. Common meanings for the name are "wisdom", that someone has been blessed, or that it means "Wind that blows over the Sindh river." It may even come from an earlier Sanskrit name. The reason that people are so mixed up about what country it belongs to probably has a lot to do with the history of the region. Persian and Arabian borders were not fixed. They both conquered certain territories like Basra.at different times. There were events that caused large migrations of people and ideas across borders. So, possibly describing the tales of Sinbad the Sailor as belonging to one culture or another is more tricky than it seems. The ancient world was interconnected and diverse. If Basra was under Persian control at the time the story was written but is considered "Arab" now, who really gets to claim that? And I still don't know if Sindbad means "Lord of the Sindh" in Arabic. So... I guess I don't really have a full answer about the origin or the name, but I get the feeling that there aren't many people that do. As for it's meaning Lord of the Sindh, I assume people who speak Arabic would know. If you do, let us know! I can't find any clues. Category:Blog posts Category:Fanon